Atatürk as a historical hero and national figure

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk:

The Chosen, Perfect, Father of the Turks

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was born in 1881 in Salonica. He was given the name of Mustafa because religiously it meant "The Chosen." (Mango 2002) His family was of the lower middle-class and a Muslim, Turkish speaking family, where his father served as a junior civil servant. Ataturk's challenge to the traditional life of Turkey began at a very young age. He recalls as one of his first memories:

My first memory of childhood concerns the problem of my schooling. This caused a bitter dispute between my parents. My mother wanted me to go to the neighbourhood [Koranic] school after initial prayers. My father, who was an official in the [customs and] excise department, was in favour of sending me to Semsi Efendi's school, which had newly opened, and of having me educated in the new manner. In the end, my father found a clever way out. First, I started at the neighbourhood school with the usual ceremony. This satisfied my mother. A few days later, I left the neighbourhood school and was entered in Semsi Efendi's school. (Mango 2002)

At the age of seven, Ataturk mourned the loss of his father and had to stay with his uncle. During this time, Ataturk transferred from his school into a military school, jealous of the Western-style uniform that he saw the military cadets got to wear. Telling his mother about his interest in military school proved be a difficult task, and he only told her after he had taken the entrance exam and was accepted into the school. After his final school transfer, Ataturk graduated at the Military School of Istanbul in the year of 1902, gaining the rank of lieutenant. In 1905, he graduated from the Military Academy with the rank of major. During the war, Ataturk was stationed at Trobruk and Derne, where he successfully won the battle of Trobruk against the Italian military. Again, Ataturk was promoted, making him the Commander of Derne. (Ataturk.com)

Ataturk is considered a hero because of his actions at Canakkale during the first world war. Enemy forces landed at Ariburnu on April 25, 1915 and were stopped by Ataturk and his men of the 19th Division. Perhaps the more important and more heroic acts that Ataturk completed during his lifetime were not those he completed in the military. After his time in the military, Ataturk was known for his leadership in the Turkish National Movement during the Turkish War of Independence. (Ataturk.com)

On October 29, 1923, Ataturk was elected as the first president of Turkey. It was a unanimous vote for the people of Turkey, as Ataturk proved before and after this date that he was more than capable of pleasing the people of Turkey. He helped women, he helped men, he helped families, farmers, and peasants. He helped the rich, the poor, and the uneducated. He was perhaps able to help just about every demographic of person within his country. Because of such, Ataturk was extremely well liked by the public.

One area in which Ataturk assisted his people was in that of political reform. Before Ataturk was in office, the country of Turkey was that of a Caliphate nation, its first and only form of government. In order to have a political reform and allow the people of Turkey to become more equal, the Caliphate nation would have to be eliminated. "We must liberate our concepts of justice, our laws and our legal institutions from the bonds which, even though they are incompatible with the needs of our century, still hold a tight grip on us," Ataturk claimed. (Ataturk.com) On March 3, 1924, he did just this, as the Caliphate was officially demolished. Once this was complete, it was also necessary to eliminate the Sultan. However, this was a much easier task once the Caliphate was already collapsed. (Ataturk.com)

Ataturk also assisted his nation of Turkey in social reform. Perhaps one of his most significant reforms, Ataturk recognized the equality between men and women. Taking almost a decade to complete, the new equality reform gave new freedoms to women in areas of divorce, education, voting, and inheritance. (Ataturk.com) In 1929, the women of Turkey had their very first beauty contest and in 1930, the first women judges were appointed (Ataturk.com). In 1925, Ataturk accomplished a headgear and dress reform, banning male turbans and giving women the right to choose to wear a headdress or not. The male headgear of the army and the civil service let others know that they were superior, and the abolishment of such allowed for more equality. (Ataturk.com) In order to have his people become more Westernized and become more equal both in and out of his nation, 1935 saw the requirement of surnames and the banning of traditional Turkish titles such as Pasha, Effendi, and Hanim. Citizens were able to choose from a list of approved surnames and were able to refer to themselves as Bay, Bayan, Mr., Mrs., or Miss. (Ataturk.com) At this point Mustafa finally received his official name: Adopting for himself the name of Ataturk, or "Father of the Turks," ridding himself of the name Mustafa. He received his official surname, given to him by a prior teacher: Kemal, meaning "perfection." (Ataturk.com)

Thirdly, Ataturk worked towards an educational reform. With the effort to make men and women equal, Ataturk encouraged education to girls and women. With the passing of the new Turkish alphabet, Ataturk set up 'People's Houses' around the nation for people to come as they pleased to learn the new alphabet. Ataturk even personally encouraged people to visit the learning houses because he was passionate about increasing the literacy of his people. It benefitted his people more so than Arabic because it already fit into the Turkish phonetics, but was quite a bit easier and quicker to learn. (Karpat, 1985)